Indian streaming giant JioHotstar is scaling its South India operations following dramatic audience growth over the past 10 months, with executives detailing the strategic rationale behind the platform’s INR4,000 crore ($445 million) content investment unveiled on Tuesday in Chennai.

Krishnan Kutty, head of entertainment for JioHotstar’s South cluster, and Sushant Sreeram , chief marketing officer and head of SVOD business at JioStar, spoke about the behavioral shifts that convinced the platform to significantly expand its regional programming slate.

The South region – comprising the Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam languages – now accounts for approximately 35% of entertainment watch time and nearly 25% of total entertainment viewership on JioHotstar, according to Kutty. Since

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